The  First  Evanstonians 


A  Paper  Read  Before  the 
Evanston  Historical  Society 
February  7th,  1916  :  :  : 

By    FRANK    R.    GROVER 


EVANSTON  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
Evanston,  Illinois 


THE  FIRST  EVANSTONIANS 


A  paper  read  before  the  Evanston  Historical  Society, 
February  7th,  1916,  by  Frank  R.  Grover. 


Compiled  in  part  from  other  monographs 
of  the  writer  relating  to  the  history  of 
Evanston  and  the  North  Shore. 


EVANSTON  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 
EVANSTON,  ILLINOIS 


THE  FIRST  EVANSTONIANS 


THE  FIRST  EVANSTONIANS 

It  has  ever  been  the  aim  of  historians,  of  every  age  and 
land,  either  to  entertain  their  readers  with  romantic  stories 
of  men  and  events,  or  to  perpetuate  in  plain  historic  record, 
a  narration  worthy  both  of  remembrance  and  of  a  place 
among  the  countless  writings  and  traditions  that  constitute 
a  history.  The  New  World  is  so  very  new;  America  is 
so  near  in  point  of  time  to  the  Indian  Days, — the  memory 
of  many  living  men  reaching  back  to  the  time  when  wilder- 
ness was  king,  that  here,  both  of  these  aims  can  easily  be 
gratified.  This  is  not  only  true  of  the  Illinois  country, 
but  it  is  especially  true  of  that  part  of  our  state  that  has, 
during  the  past  generation,  acquired,  probably  for  all  time, 
the  name  of  "The  North  Shore."  This  strip  of  land  on  the 
western  shores  of  Lake  Michigan,  extending  from  the 
northern  limits  of  Chicago  to  the  Wisconsin  state  line,  a 
distance  of  some  forty  miles,  and  with  a  western  boundary 
undefined,  has  been  occupied  by  the  Pioneer  for  scarce  a 
hundred  years.  The  preceding  century  and  a  half — the 
exploration  period,  completes  its  entire  written  history  as 
known  to  white  men.  For  unknown  centuries  before  that 
it  was  the  land  of  the  Indians.  It  is  my  purpose  to  tell 
you  what  I  have  been  able  to  learn  of  those  very  early 
days,  so  full  of  adventure  and  of  interest,  the  days  of  the 
prehistoric  Mound  Builder,  the  Indian,  the  Explorer,  the 
Jesuit  Missionary,  the  First  Residents  of  the  North  Shore 
-THE  FIRST  EVANSTONIANS. 

The  human  instinct  for  enjoyment  of  primeval  scenes, 
to  live  over  again  in  reverie  and  in  story  that  which  only 
the  Explorers  saw,  is  as  imperishable  as  that  indefinable 
something  that  one  author  has  designated,  "The  Call  of 
the  Wild."  Hence  the  writers  have  traveled  in  all  the 
highways  and  byways  and  far  off  corners  of  Mother  Earth, 

(51 


taking  their  readers  on  long  journeys,  far  from  home,  many 
times  overlooking  the  immediate  foreground  of  their  own 
country,  where  men  have  also  come  and  gone,  amid  associa- 
tions and  scenes  that  present  historic  pictures  equal  to  all 
those  brought  from  far  off  lands  and  times.  And  so,  for 
change,  I  ask  you  to  take  a  glimpse  of  our  own  country — 
of  the  North  Shore,  in  a  most  interesting  period  of  its 
history. 

On  the  eastern  boundary  the  winds  and  waves  of  Old 
Lake  Michigan — then  known  as  the  Lake  of  the  Illinois, 
blew  and  rolled  as  in  these  modern  days.  The  calm  summer 
sea  and  the  glory  of  the  sunrise,  meaning  then  as  much  to 
the  Red  Man  as  these  days  to  the  White,  and  probably 
sometimes  more,  for  a  calm  sea  afforded  navigation  with 
a  canoe  and  the  Sun  was  the  emblem  of  the  Great  Spirit. 
Sand  dunes  and  scrub  oak  groves  lined  the  shores  from 
the  Chicago  Creek  to  the  site  of  modern  Davis  Street  in 
Evanston,  and  from  there  northward  to  Little  Fort,  now 
Waukegan,  were  the  high  bluffs  ever  changing  their  align- 
ment with  the  march  of  time  and  the  roar  of  the  waves, 
and  there  was  the  great  forest  as  in  recent  days,  presenting 
a  shore  line  of  such  beauty  and  interest,  especially  in 
autumn,  as  to  cause  repeated  comment  and  description  by 
the  early  writers.  From  Little  Fort  to  the  Land  of  the 
Wisconsins,  again  sand  dunes  and  the  low  country  with 
its  adjacent  bluffs  and  ravines  as  one  sees  it  today;  rich 
then  as  now,  as  experts  tell  us,  in  a  greater  variety  of  trees, 
wild  flowers  and  shrubs  than  any  other  one  locality  of  the 
known  world. 

West  of  the  Great  Lake  there  were  too,  other  waters 
of  the  North  Shore,  of  very  substantial  importance,  now 
almost  forgotten.  For  half  a  century  and  more  the  Indian 
word  "Skokie"  has  been  the  name  of  a  long  swamp  or 
slough  extending  from  Lake  Bluff  south  to  a  point  opposite 
Wilmette  Village.  In  the  Eighteenth  Century  and  before, 
this  swamp  was  an  inland  lake,  forming  the  headwaters 

16) 


of  the  North  Branch  of  the  Chicago  River,  and  also  at 
times  part  of  one  of  the  great  historic  highways  of  America 
which  will  receive  later  mention.  The  Camps  and  Vil- 
lages of  the  Red  Men  first  and  last  have  occupied  almost 
every  available  site  on  the  banks  of  this  inland  lake  and 
river,  and  upon  the  banks  of  this  former  lake  or  its  river 
outlet,  in  all  probability,  was  located  in  the  year  1 696,  one 
of  the  very  first  Catholic  Missions  of  Illinois. 

To  the  west  was  another  ancient  water-way — the 
River  Des  Plaines,  stagnant  at  times  and  again  a  highway 
for  explorer,  coureur  de  bois  or  Indian,  while  along  its 
banks  amid  the  forest  or  belt  of  timber  on  either  side,  again 
the  camp  and  village  of  the  savage. 

Stretching  away  to  the  west  of  the  bluffs  and  the 
ravines  of  the  forest  on  the  shores  of  this  Lake  of  the 
Illinois,  was  the  panorama  of  probably  the  most  beautiful 
part  of  this  Illinois  Country.  There  is  grandeur  in  the 
mountains  to  which  all  mankind  pays  homage,  but  the 
beauty  of  this  Illinois  prairie-land  in  the  days  of  the  Indian 
occupation,  must  ever  remain  a  picture  unpainted  by 
artist  and  never  to  be  fairly  described  by  any  writer — not 
the  barren,  dusty  and  treeless  plains  of  the  far  West,  but 
all  that  primeval  beauty  amid  summer  sunshine  and 
showers,  that  prodigal  Nature,  rich  and  wanton  in  wealth 
and  resource,  can  create  in  the  harmony  of  a  thousand  little 
prairies  and  a  thousand  little  groves,  oak  openings  and 
forests,  around  a  hundred  inland  lakes,  which,  like  spark- 
ling gems,  were  scattered  over  the  land — the  paradise  of  its 
savage  owners,  for  it  abounded  in  all  the  wild  creatures 
of  the  American  plain  that  make  happy  hunting  grounds. 
The  flowers  of  Spring,  the  verdure  of  Summer,  rolling  in 
billows  like  waves  of  the  sea  before  the  prairie  wind,  the 
autumnal  foliage,  and  the  dreamy  haze  of  the  later  Indian 
Summer  giving  the  final  touch,  are  all  a  part  of  this  un- 
painted picture.  That  was  the  North  Shore  more  than 
a  century  before  it  bore  that  name — and  to  its  proprietors 

[71 


and  to  its  distinguished  historic  visitors,  we  will  turn  for 
a  hasty  glance  of  who  they  were  and  what  they  did. 

Beginning  with 

THE  MOUND  BUILDERS 

who  bring  to  mind  a  thousand  fancies  of  an  unknown  people, 
of  a  race  that  has  come  and  gone  and  left  no  word  or  trace 
of  whence  they  came  or  where  and  when  they  disappeared 
from  earth.  This  will  ever  be  shrouded  in  mystery  and 
clouded  with  the  conflicting  theories  of  the  many  writers 
who  have  tried  in  some  measure  to  trace  their  history. 
The  most  recent  research  seems  to  indicate  that  they  were 
of  the  same  races  and  in  reality  the  progenitors  of  the 
later  known  Indian  tribes,  though  possibly  of  higher  cul- 
ture. This  conclusion  is  probably  the  correct  one,  but 
whether  it  be  right  or  wrong,  these  people  have  left  behind 
in  their  mounds  and  implements  indications  of  their  great 
antiquity,  showing  a  residence  in  the  Illinois  Country,  as 
one  writer  asserts,  ante-dating  the  buffalo,  as,  says  this 
writer,  no  carvings  or  images  of  the  American  bison  are 
found  among  their  works,  while  those  of  the  other  animals 
abound. 

The  North  Shore  has  no  such  works  of  the  Mound 
Builders  as  are  to  be  found  in  other  parts  of  the  state, 
especially  along  the  Mississippi  where  the  great  Cahokia 
or  Monk's  Mound  and  the  many  other  great  mounds  and 
earth-works  at  East  Saint  Louis  stand  as  one  of  the  Wonders 
.  of  the  Western  World — still  from  the  emblematic  mound 
in  the  form  of  a  huge  lizard  which  was  under  the  present 
site  of  the  Wellington  Street  Station  of  the  Northwestern 
Elevated  Railroad  in  Chicago  on  the  south, — to  the  inter- 
esting group  of  mounds  used  at  one  time  as  a  fortification, 
still  visible  near  the  Village  of  Antioch  on  the  north, — the 
North  Shore  has  first  and  last  been  replete  with  these 
works  of  antiquity  so  graphically  described  by  that  learned 
pioneer,  Mr.  E.  S.  Ingalls  of  Waukegan,  some  sixty-five 

[8] 


years  ago.  A  few  of  these  earth  works  still  remain  and 
are  treasured,  as  they  should  be,  by  thoughtful  land 
owners,  but  it  is  a  sad  and  disappointing  experience  to 
learn  that  the  ignorance,  stupidity  and  thoughtless  vandal- 
ism of  the  industrious  tillers  of  the  soil  have  long  since 
levelled  these  precious  Indian  landmarks  of  the  North 
Shore  which  would  in  many  other  localities  have  been 
treasured  for  all  time  to  come  as  monuments  to  a  departed 
people  and  as  an  inspiration,  ever  pointing  to  the  field  of 
inquiry,  for  the  historian  and  archaeologist  yet  to  come. 

THE  STONE  IMPLEMENTS  AND  WEAPONS  OF 
THE  NORTH  SHORE 

present  a  much  more  interesting  subject  for  historical 
research  than  do  the  Mound  Builders  and  their  Mounds, 
for  the  results  are  more  certain  and  conclusive.  The 
mere  mention  of  "The  Stone  Age"  generally  gives  the 
impression  of  some  far  off  era,  perhaps  thousands  of 
years  ago,  when  in  truth  and  reality  the  Stone  Age  in 
America  and  on  the  North  Shore  only  began  to  close  when 
the  Indian  trader  brought  from  across  the  Ocean,  the  new 
steel  hatchets  and  arrow  points  to  take  the  place  of  the  old, 
here  wrought  in  flint  and  chert  and  copper  in  the  far  off 
and  yet  nearby  times,  of  which  there  is  little  written 
history. 

Much  of  the  history  of  those  times  must  of  necessity 
remain  forever  undisclosed.  Some  of  it  has  been  gathered 
from  credible  traditions,  some  of  it  distorted  by  the  frailty 
of  human  recollection  and  by  the  fragile  partition  that  oft 
divides  memory  from  imagination  and  truthfulness  from 
the  inclination  to  boast  of  the  prowess  of  Indian  ancestry. 
What  the  exact  truth  is  must  be  left  for  the  most  part  to 
uncertainty  and  speculation.  But  a  portion  of  that  history, 
as  applied  to  the  North  Shore,  is  told  as  simply  and  plainly 
by  the  stone  implements  and  weapons  as  though  written 
in  words  on  monument  or  obelisk.  The  entrance  to  this 

[91 


field  of  research  opens,  of  course,  more  easily  and  widely 
to  the  man  of  science — the  archaeologist;  but  the  merest 
novice,  if  he  be  diligent,  will  there  find  a  mine  of  historic 
facts  that  are  both  interesting  and  reliable. 

One  of  the  greatest  orators  of  modern  times  spoke 
of  "The  man  of  imagination — what  does  he  see?"  And  so 
the  student,  whether  he  has  great  learning  or  that  next 
best  substitute — industry,  when  he  finds  the  chippings  of 
flint,  chert  or  cobble  stone  left  in  the  ancient  workshops 
of  the  North  Shore,  or  when  he  sees  the  many  finished  wares 
that  have  been  worn  and  used  and  lost  by  the  ancient 
customers  of  the  ancient  artisans — and  then  found  again, 
can  reproduce  a  reasonably  accurate  picture  of  the  Red 
Man,  who  sat  generations  ago  on  the  West  Shore  of  Lake 
Michigan  and  with  untold  labor  and  deftness  prepared  the 
arrows  and  spear  heads,  which  his  red  brother  in  due  time 
hurled  at  deer  or  buffalo  or  dusky  foe.  And  this  student 
can  in  fair  and  truthful  speculation  follow  these  red  brothers 
in  all  they  saw  and  did,  through  the  forest  and  across  the 
broad  prairies,  in  the  hunt  and  in  the  chase,  to  the  wigwam 
and  to  the  camp  fire,  on  the  war-path  and  in  their  idle 
roamings  from  place  to  place. 

I  sometimes  think  that  if  these  countless  objects  of 
flint  and  stone  and  copper,  scattered  in  thousands  of 
museums,  American  homes  and  collections,  could  each 
speak  and  tell  its  tale,  of  all  the  scenes  in  peace  and  war, 
in  village  and  camp,  in  field  and  forest,  in  the  mountain 
and  on  the  distant  plain  where  the  speaker  played  a  part; 
not  only  would  we  know  all  the  history  and  all  the  ancient 
manners  and  customs  of  the  disappearing  race,  but  the 
romance  of  the  primeval  Red  Man  would  have  still  a  new 
tinge  and  there  would  be  themes  without  end  for  all  the 
writers  of  history  and  poetry  and  fiction  for  all  time  to 
come. 

To  treat  this  subject,  confined  even  to  the  North 
Shore,  in  detail,  would  require  extended  reference  not 
possible  within  the  limits  of  this  outline.  The  shops  or 

[101 


chipping  stations  on  the  lake  shore  at  Evanston  and 
Rogers  Park  where  arrows  were  manufactured;  the  broken 
pottery  and  litter  locating  camps  and  villages;  the  chip- 
pings  of  chert  or  lake  flint  found  scattered  for  miles  in 
extent,  either  on  sand  ridges  formerly  the  banks  of  the  lake 
or  where  the  prehistoric  population  was  most  abundant; 
the  implements,  some  of  them  of  copper,  at  times  found 
deep  in  gravel  beds  at  the  famous  and  probably  very 
ancient  villages  at  Bowmanville,  west  of  Rose  Hill  and 
along  the  North  Branch  of  the  Chicago  River  to  the  north 
of  that  site;  the  almost  inexhaustible  quantities  of  such 
implements  and  weapons  of  all  kinds  found  throughout 
the  North  shore  District  during  the  past  fifty  years,  indi- 
cating both  very  ancient  prehistoric  and  prolonged  Indian 
occupation;  great  hunting  grounds  and  endless  visits  and 
barter  with  distant  tribes;  not  to  forget  the  sites  located 
near  Zion  City  by  Dr.  Wm.  A.  Phillips  of  Evanston,  where 
hatchets  and  hammers  were  manufactured  of  trap-rock 
or  cobble  stones  and  reported  by  him  years  ago  in  an  able 
paper  for  the  Smithsonian  Institute;  are  all,  like  many 
others  that  could  be  named,  of  interest  and  worthy  of 
extended  study. 

These  land  marks — these  bits  of  clay  and  flint  and 
cobble  stone,  to  which  has  been  made  but  very  scant 
reference,  tell  a  perfect  and  yet  an  imperfect  story;  perfect, 
because  we  know  from  them  that  in  some  far  off  day  the 
North  Shore  was,  as  it  is  now,  a  favorite  abiding  place; 
perfect,  too,  because  the  man  of  science  can  tell  us  in  some 
measure  how  these  people  lived  and  what  they  did.  Im- 
perfect, because  we  must  rely  to  some  extent  upon  theory 
and  speculation  and  cannot  open  wide  the  door  with 
what  is  understood  by  the  term  written  history. 


Mil 


THE  HISTORIC  VISITORS  TO  THE  NORTH  SHORE 
DURING  THE  EXPLORATION  PERIOD 

those  men  of  iron  and  enterprise  who  both  made  and 
wrote  the  history  of  New  France,  the  Illinois  Country 
and  the  North  Shore  during  the  hundred  and  fifty  years 
intervening  between  the  first  voyage  of  Marquette  and 
Joliet  in  1673,  and  the  final  decadence  of  the  fur  trade, 
will  ever  command  respect  and  admiration. 

Mackinac  and  Chicago  or  the  Chicago  Portage  were,  so  to 
speak,  the  outer  and  the  inner  doorways  to  the  Mississippi 
Valley  and  to  the  heart  of  a  vast  continent  described  upon 
the  maps  as  "Unknown  Interior."  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century  and  for  a  full  hundred  succeeding 
years,  the  Explorer,  the  Missionary  and  the  Trader  reached 
Georgian  Bay  or  Detroit  before  he  saw  Mackinac,  and 
camped  at  Evanston  before  he  saw  Chicago. 

And  so  in  endless  procession  through  all  the  years  came 
these  men  along  the  ancient  water-highways,  by  Lake 
and  by  River,  used  by  the  Indians  for  unnumbered  cen- 
turies— the  lines  of  least  resistance, — the  Indian  thorough- 
fares— the  shortest  and  quickest  routes.  With  such 
frequency  and  for  such  length  of  time  did  they  come  and 
go  with  their  Indian  companions  and  in  their  birch-bark 
canoes  between  Chicago  and  Mackinac,  that  this  route 
became  one  of  the  Great  Historic  Highways  of  America. 
The  usual  route  was  along  the  North  Shore  in  the  Lake, 
but  there  is  the  best  of  evidence  to  show  that  at  times, 
especially  when  there  were  storms  upon  the  lake,  the  North 
Branch  of  the  Chicago  River  and  the  inland  Skokie  Lake 
were  utilized  as  a  part  of  this  highway. 

Ever  farther  and  farther  in  the  hiding  places  of  this 
Western  wilderness  was  the  goal  of  the  ambitions  of  the 
travelers  along  this  highway;  first  to  find  the  supposed 
near-by  water  route  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  to  China; 
again  to  trace  and  map  the  course  of  the  Father  of  Waters 
and  his  mighty  tributaries;  and  ever  and  ever  to  explore 
unknown  lands;  there  to  plant  the  flag  of  the  French 

112] 


King,  not  only  extending  his  empire  and  dominions,  but 
further  to  extend  and  multiply  the  rapidly  increasing  and 
profitable  fur  trade  with  the  Indians,  which  afforded 
practically  the  only  revenue  of  New  France.  These 
activities  for  adventure,  for  gain  and  for  the  glory  of  the 
mother  country,  enlisted  the  untiring  effort  of  almost  the 
entire  French  colonies  in  America;  not  only  the  leaders — 
the  Explorer,  the  Adventurer,  the  Fur  Trader,  and 
the  Soldier — but  the  rank  and  file,  who  paddled  the  canoes 
and  who  bore  the  heavy  burdens  on  stream  and  lake  and 
river,  over  unknown  paths  across  a  continent  in  the  New 
World.  Buoyant  and  gay  the  French  Canadian  and 
coureur  de  bois  made  the  wilderness  ring  with  laughter  and 
his  boat  song  as  he  bent  himself  to  his  task,  in  happy  oblivion 
of  all  the  labor  and  cares  along  the  unnumbered  leagues 
left  behind;  ever  pressing  on  with  hopeful  anticipation  of 
what  lay  before,  always  with  the  fascination  of  the  forest 
and  the  wilds  driving  him  onward  to  the  new  land — to 
the  land  of  promise  and  of  expectation. 

Hand  in  hand  with  these  representatives  of  Commerce 
and  the  State,  through  all  the  years,  went  the  Jesuit  and 
other  missionaries  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  not 
only  to  shape  the  character  and  the  destinies  of  the  new 
colonies,  but  on  the  thankless  and  impossible  errand  and 
task  of  turning  the  savage  North  American  Indians  from 
the  tom-tom  to  the  priest  and  to  the  Cross  of  Christ. 
For  half  a  century,  Laval,  the  first  bishop  of  New  France, 
exerted  a  powerful  influence  not  only  in  the  affairs  of  state, 
but  in  this  work  of  the  church  in  the  far  away  Mississippi 
Valley  and  in  this  Illinois  Country — encouraging  and 
sending  missionaries  wherever  a  trader  was  found  or  a 
canoe  could  go. 

The  annals  of  this  Illinois  Country,  like  most  of  New 
France,  cannot  be  written  without  paying  some  measure 
of  respect  to  the  Jesuit  Fathers  of  that  era  who  have  given 
us  much  of  its  history  in  the  Jesuit  Relations;  their  loyalty, 
fidelity  and  self-sacrificing  zeal  are  an  inspiration  in  every 

1131 


domain  of  human  endeavor.  Whether  in  sympathy  or 
otherwise  with  their  religion  and  their  cause,  in  fairness, 
all  will  say,  with  the  great  historian  of  those  times — 
"Their  virtues  shine  amidst  the  rubbish  of  error  like 
diamonds  and  gold  in  the  gravel  of  the  torrent." 

The  detailed  history  of  any  one  of  the  voyages  along 
this  ancient  highway  of  the  North  Shore  tells  a  story  well 
worth  the  reading.  To  tell  of  its  travelers  whose  names 
will  live  forever  in  the  history  of  the  nation  and  which 
are  stamped  indelibly  upon  the  maps  of  all  our  states, 
would  be  to  write  the  history  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  in 
those  eventful  years  and  to  consider  in  detail  what  can 
here  only  be  mentioned  in  outline. 

Here  came,  as  we  all  know,  the  first  white  visitors  to 
the  North  Shore  of  which  there  is  definite  account — 
Marquette  and  Joliet,  returning  Northward  after  their 
exploration  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Illinois,  guided  to 
the  Chicago  Portage  by  the  kindly  Illinois  Indians.  It  is 
interesting  to  read  in  Marquette's  Journal  of  his  Second 
Voyage,  how  the  following  year  in  1674,  he  spent  several 
days  in  November,  camped  amid  snow  and  ice,  on  the 
lake  shore  at  Waukegan ;  of  the  visits  there  exchanged 
between  his  camp  and  neighboring  Indian  Villages;  of 
Father  Marquette's  description,  derived  from  his  Indian 
friends,  of  the  prairies,  little  inland  lakes  and  waterways; 
of  the  buffalo,  deer,  wild  turkeys  and  geese  killed  by  his 
party  and  the  Indians  both  at  Waukegan  and  Lake  Forest; 
and  of  his  camp  at  Evanston  with  his  French  and  Indian 
companions  some  ten  days  later;  and  on  December  3rd 
near  the  present  site  of  the  Evanston  light-house,  where 
the  storm  and  floating  ice  in  the  lake  compelled  a  landing. 
The  picture  of  those  camp  fires  surrounded  by  this  good 
Father  and  his  Indian  friends,  the  Pottawatomies  and  the 
Illinois,  with  the  ten  birch-bark  canoes  drawn  up  on  the 
banks,  away  from  the  storm  and  the  chill  of  those  long 
winter  evenings,  is  not  dimmed  by  the  lapse  of  time,  for 
it  was  but  the  historical  yesterday. 

[14] 


Volumes  have  been  written  and  could  be  repeated 
almost  without  number  of  the  daring  exploits  and  voyages 
here  of  the  great  explorer,  LaSalle,  and  of  the  many  and 
noted  associates  and  successors  of  Marquette — men  of 
the  Church — Allouez,  Hennepin,  Pinet,  Gravier,  Binne- 
teau,  Saint  Cosme,  Davion,  Montigny,  and  so  on  through 
the  long  list  of  those  men,  many  of  noble  birth  and  great 
learning,  who  chose,  as  willing  votaries  of  their  cause,  to 
lead  a  life  of  hardship  and  to  perish  in  the  American  wilder- 
ness, far  from  home  and  friends  and  family,  rather  than  to 
live  a  life  of  ease  in  the  civilization  across  the  sea. 

Again  volumes  could  be  written  of  other  explorers, 
traders  and  soldiers,  soldiers  both  of  fortune  and  of  their 
king,  not  to  forget  the  hero  of  them  all,  La  Salle's  faithful 
lieutenant  and  loyal  friend,  Henri  de  Tonty,  "the  man  with 
the  iron  hand,"  who  by  lake  and  river  and  land,  and  on  one 
occasion  on  foot,  has  probably  a  hundred  times  and  more 
seen  the  whole  of  our  North  Shore,  coming  and  going  with 
tireless  energy  between  Mackinac  and  Chicago  for  twenty 
years.  He  held,  as  we  all  know,  the  Illinois  Country  and 
most  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  during  those  important 
decades  in  American  history,  by  force  of  French  arms, 
Indian  friends  and  allies,  and  by  the  strength  of  his  remark- 
able character  and  individuality,  with  his  home  and  fortress 
at  Old  Fort  Saint  Louis,,  then  standing  on  Starved  Rock, 
all  for  the  glory  of  the  cause  and  the  empire  of  The  Grand 
Monarch,  Louis  the  XIV. 

In  hasty  reference  and  outline  only,  of  course,  for 
the  romantic  account  of  the  men  who  came,  and  went, 
and  tarried  here,  and  whose  camp  fires  have  gleamed  at 
night  on  every  bank  of  this  North  Shore,  for  that  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  tells  the  story  of  an  empire  in  the  making 
and  gives  study  and  entertainment  to  those  who  enjoy 
such  research  for  the  lifetime  of  any  diligent  student 
whether  he  dies  young  or  old. 

M51 


with  one  exception  the  oldest  Catholic  Mission  in  Illinois, 
was  founded  in  the  year  1696  by  Father  Pierre  Francois 
Pinet,  a  Jesuit  Missionary,  the  same  man  who  four  years 
later  in  the  year  1700  founded  the  first  permanent  white 
settlements  in  Illinois  at  Cahokia  and  Kaskakia.  This 
Mission  of  the  Guardian  Angel  through  the  hostility  of 
Frontenac  was  abandoned  in  the  year  1697,  but  on  account 
of  the  influence  of  Laval  again  resumed  in  1698  and  con- 
tinued until  1 699,  or  early  in  the  year  1 700,  when  finally 
it  was  abandoned. 

Historical  writers  have  never  been  able  to  agree  upon 
the  exact  location  of  this  mission.  Writings  regarding 
the  work  of  the  mission  are  in  sufficient  abundance,  but 
there  is  no  statement  of  exact  location.  Pinet,  a  man  of 
deeds  and  not  of  words,  has  left  no  record. 

But  in  the  year  1698  Jean  Francois  Saint  Cosme,  a 
Catholic  priest,  and  two  companions  of  the  Church,  in 
company  with  Vincennes  and  with  Tonty,  who  acted  as 
guide,  was  one  of  the  voyagers  along  the  North  Shore  on 
his  way  to  the  Mississippi.  The  party  was  caught  in  a 
storm  and  obliged  to  land  the  canoes  somewhere  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  present  village  of  Wilmette,  where, 
leaving  the  canoes  and  the  baggage,  the  company  went 
by  land  to  this  Mission  House,  and  they  were  there  cor- 
dially received  and  entertained  for  several  days  by  Father 
Pinet  and  his  co-worker,  Father  Binneteau. 

From  Saint  Cosme's  report  of  this  voyage  and  visit  to 
the  Mission  House,  considered  in  connection  with  the 
topography  of  the  North  Shore  at  that  time,  there  are 
the  best  of  reasons  for  believing  that  this  mission  was 
located  at  the  site  of  a  former  Indian  village  in  the  vicinity 
of  Indian  Hill  Golf  Grounds  and  on  the  bank  of  the  then 
Skokie  Lake,  or  on  the  bank  of  the  North  Branch  of  the 
Chicago  River  near  the  Skokie  for  which  this  river  was 

1161 


the  outlet.  While  the  monograph  of  the  writer  respecting 
Father  Pinet  and  this  mission  and  especially  regarding 
its  location,  read  before  a  joint  meeting  of  the  Evanston 
and  Chicago  Historical  Societies  in  1907,  has  in  the 
succeeding  years  run  the  gauntlet  of  both  compliment 
and  criticism  by  recent  historical  writers,  no  one  seems 
so  far  to  have  been  able  to  present  a  more  probable  loca- 
tion, nor  to  supply  proof  either  from  Saint  Cosme's  report 
or  otherwise  that  indicates  with  any  certainty  that  this 
North  Shore  location  is  not  the  right  one.  And  so,  until 
the  contrary  be  shown,  the  ancient  Mission  of  the  Guardian 
Angel  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  North  Shore,  as  do  its 
many  distinguished  visitors  and  its  no  less  distinguished 
priests  who  labored  there  with  all  self-sacrificing  effort 
at  the  Indian  villages  of  the  Miamis. 

THE  INDIAN  CAMPS  AND  VILLAGES  AND  THE 
INDIAN  TRAILS  OF  THE  NORTH  SHORE 

present  still  another  subject  worthy  of  extended  considera- 
tion, impossible  within  the  limits  of  this  discussion.  It 
is  made  certain  from  credible  statements  of  pioneers,  as 
well  as  from  the  early  writers,  that  at  every  place  on  the 
North  Shore,  almost  without  exception,  where  there  is 
now  a  White  Man's  city  or  village,  there  was  located 
during  periods  of  short  or  long  duration  the  camp  or 
permanent  village  of  his  Indian  Predecessor.  For  illus- 
tration, we  know  from  such  writings  as  those  compiled  in 
Hurlbut's  Chicago  Antiquities  and  from  Haines*  First 
History  of  Lake  County  written  in  1852,  that  Half  Day 
was  a  Pottawatomie  chief,  that  he  was  an  orator  of 
reputation,  that  at  an  important  Indian  Council  held 
in  Chicago  in  the  year  1832,  he,  with  Chief  Alexander 
Robinson  and  others,  persuaded  the  Indians  in  this  locality 
to  remain  friendly  to  the  whites  and  not  to  join  in  Black 
Hawk's  war.  From  like  written  authority  we  know  that 
Half  Day's  Village  was  on  Indian  Creek,  at  or  near  its 
confluence  with  the  Des  Plaines  River,  east  of  and  near 

(171 


the  present  hamlet  bearing  Half  Day's  name,  and  that 
Metawa  was  another  chief  heading  a  band  of  the  same 
village. 

More  interesting  perhaps,  are  the  sites  of  camps  and 
villages  of  which  there  is  no  definite  written  history,  for 
the  reason  that  the  very  method  of  fixing  their  locations 
is  as  interesting  as  the  study  of  the  habits,  customs  and 
history  of  a  prehistoric  people  from  their  weapons  and 
implements  and  from  the  ruins  of  their  homes  and  temples. 

For  illustration  again:  It  is  made  certain  that  many 
of  the  camps  along  the  lake  shore  were  used  by  Indian 
fishermen.  Here  have  been  found,  near  the  charcoal  and 
stones  cracked  by  the  heat  of  ancient  fire  places,  the  per- 
forated stone  net  weights  or  sinkers  used  to  anchor  fish 
nets  in  the  lake.  1 1  is  said  on  good  authority  that  at  least 
10,000  specimens  of  implements,  weapons  and  pottery 
have  been  gathered  from  the  sites  of  the  Indian  villages 
at  Bowman ville  and  other  places  to  the  north,  on  the 
North  Branch  of  the  Chicago  River,  some  of  them  indicat- 
ing very  early  French  occupation.  The  white  man's 
modern  home  and  gardens  on  the  bluffs  of  the  lake  present 
no  novelty  in  location,  as  the  lodge  circles  left  in  the 
ground,  preserved  by  vegetation,  show  the  location  of 
ancient  wigwams,  and  the  sod  covered  rows  of  long  deserted 
corn  fields  show  clearly  that  some  Indian,  possibly  cen- 
turies ago,  had  the  same  desire  for  the  lake  forest  and 
the  lake  view  as  this  presumptuous  modern  Anglo-Saxon 
resident  of  the  North  Shore.  We  know  from  glass  beads 
that  there  were  Indian  traders  at  the  village,  and  from 
silver  crosses  and  similar  ornaments  found  with  the  dead 
in  Indian  cemeteries  that  catholic  missionaries  labored 
here.  Copper  implements  and  those  of  obsidian  show 
that  these  camps  and  villages  had  visitors  from  the  far 
away  Yellowstone  where  obsidian  is  found,  at  the  obsidian 
cliff,  in  the  present  Yellowstone  National  Park,  and  also 
visitors  from  Northern  Michigan  where  were  the  ancient 
copper  mines.  So  much  for  the  sites  and  camps  and 

M81 


villages,  almost  countless  in  number,  some  to  be  preserved 
by  maps  and  writings,  many  to  be  lost  and  forgotten  for 
lack  of  attention  in  this  busy  age  of  utility. 

From  camp  to  camp  and  from  village  to  village  ran 
the  Indian  Trails  now,  with  few  exceptions,  lost,  forgotten 
and  obliterated.  The  exceptions,  however,  are  worthy 
of  attention.  The  present  resident  of  the  North  Shore 
rides  to  and  fro  and  to  the  site  of  Old  Fort  Dearborn  in 
Chicago  in  his  automobile  along  Sheridan  Road.  For  half 
a  century  and  more  substantially  the  same  highway  was 
travelled  by  the  stage  coach  and  the  pioneer  when  it  was 
the  Green  Bay  Road;  and  for  a  century  and  more  before 
that,  it  was  the  Green  Bay  Indian  Trail,  the  principal 
Indian  thoroughfare  by  land,  leading  from  the  North  to 
the  Chicago  Portage  and  to  Fort  Dearborn,  in  constant 
use,  as  was  the  parallel  thoroughfare  to  the  West,  terminat- 
ing in  what  is  now  Lincoln  Avenue  in  Chicago,  long  known 
as  the  Little  Fort  Trail.  The  North  Shore  respecting 
several  of  its  long  established  highways  is  similar  to  many 
other  localities.  First  the  Indian  Trail,  used  in  turn  by 
the  Explorer  and  the  Pioneer,  at  last  to  become  the  inter- 
urban  paved  street  for  the  twentieth  century  multitude. 

INDIAN  TREATIES,  INDIAN  BOUNDARY  LINES, 

AND  OUILMETTE  INDIAN  RESERVATION, 

WITHIN  THE  PRESENT  CORPORATE 

LIMITS  OF  WILMETTE  AND  EVANSTON 

are  still  further  chapters  in  the  history  of  the  first  residents 
of  the  North  Shore.  The  treaty  making  Indian  Councils 
at  Old  Fort  Dearborn;  the  noted  Indian  orators  there 
assembled;  the  speeches  preserved  as  the  best  types  of 
Indian  eloquence  by  such  reporters  and  historians  as 
Henry  R.  Schoolcraft;  the  vivid  descriptions  of  both  pictur- 
esque and  pathetic  scenes  on  such  occasions  when  the 
Indian  parted  with  his  birth-right;  the  further  descriptions 
of  all  the  pomp  and  glory  of  the  tribes  as  they  came  along 

(19) 


the  North  Shore  Trails  in  single  file,  mounted  on  their 
Indian  ponies,  accompanied  by  squaws  and  Indian  children, 
all  arrayed  in  their  best  apparel,  bedecked  with  beads  and 
feathers,  and  armed  with  guns  and  bows  and  arrows,  all 
on  their  way  to  the  Council,  there  to  meet  the  Government 
agents  and  soldiers  and  to  listen  to  the  speeches  of  their 
greatest  orators;  the  picture  of  the  vast  Indian  encamp- 
ments around  the  Fort  in  the  little  frontier  Village  of 
Chicago,  never  again  to  be  seen  in  America,  are  all  authen- 
tic historical  preliminaries  to  the  Treaties  which  not  only 
established  the  Indian  Boundary  Lines,  but  which  turned 
the  primeval  prairies  into  farms  and  started  the  primeval 
owners,  the  victims  of  circumstance  to  which  they  had 
made  no  contribution,  on  their  long  journey  of  many  suc- 
cessive stages,  from  which  there  was  to  be  no  return,  across 
the  Great  River  and  toward  the  setting  sun. 

On  July  29th,  1829,  there  were  such  scenes  in  Wisconsin 
at  Prairie  du  Chien  attending  the  execution  of  an  important 
Indian  treaty.  One  of  the  interested  spectators  and 
participants  was  Antoine  Ouilmette,  a  Frenchman,  former 
employee  of  John  Kinzie  and  of  the  American  Fur  Com- 
pany, a  man  who  came  to  Chicago  in  1 790  and  who  became 
the  first  permanent  white  resident  of  the  North  Shore  at 
Evanston  in  1826,  a  man  of  influence  with  the  Indians  and 
skilled  in  all  the  intrigue  of  government  agents  incident 
to  an  Indian  Treaty.  When  this  treaty  was  signed  on 
that  day,  its  4th  article  gave  to  Archange  Ouilmette,  the 
Pottawatomie  squaw  of  this  Frenchman,  and  to  her 
children,  two  sections  of  land  constituting  most  of  the 
present  Village  of  Wilmette  and  part  of  Evanston.  Thus 
was  the  Ouilmette  Indian  Reservation  established  on  the 
North  Shore.  To  relate  its  history  in  detail  and  the  history 
of  the  Ouilmette  family  and  their  Indian  friends  would  be 
to  give  much  of  the  history  of  Chicago  for  the  forty  years 
succeeding  1 790,  and  of  Evanston,  Wilmette  and  the  North 
Shore  for  the  forty  years  succeeding  1826.  The  comings 
and  goings  and  doings  of  this  Frenchman  and  his  family 

[201 


lack  nothing  in  the  way  of  frontier  adventure  from  the 
time  of  his  first  North  Shore  voyage  on  his  way  to  Chicago 
in  1790;  through  the  stirring  times  of  the  war  of  1812  and 
the  massacre  of  the  garrison  of  old  Fort  Dearborn;  the 
Black  Hawk  War  and  all  the  historic  scenes  surrounding 
the  negotiation  and  signing  of  many  Indian  Treaties,  in- 
cluding the  final  treaty  at  Chicago  of  1833,  which  finally 
removed  the  Indians  from  Illinois  in  1835, — in  all  of  which 
historic  scenes  and  dramas  Ouilmette  and  his  family  played 
a  part. 

The  story  of  the  Indian  Days  and  the  history  of  the 
times  here  under  consideration  would  be  sadly  disappoint- 
ing and  deficient  without  at  least  some  reference  to  the 

INDIAN  TRIBES 

who  first  and  last  have  either  occupied  or  who  have  been 
the  landed  proprietors  of  the  North  Shore.  While  the 
charm  and  romance  of  Indian  history  and  of  Indian  tales 
and  legends  seems  never  to  wane,  still  the  detailed  account 
of  each  of  these  tribes  is  the  story  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  a 
savage  nation,  in  most  instances  through  centuries  of 
time;  hence  they  can  only  here  receive  brief  and  hasty 
consideration,  leaving  details  to  the  many  books  and 
writings  that  have  described  them  in  every  aspect  of  their 
glory,  their  misfortune  and  their  decline. 

First,  of  course,  in  point  of  interest  come  the  Illinois 
consisting  of  the  several  tribes,  five  in  number,  from  whom 
the  Great  Lake  and  our  great  State  was  first  named.  The 
people  who  in  1673,  gathered  with  friendly  greeting,  by 
thousands,  at  their  great  Indian  metropolis  at  the  present 
site  of  Utica,  on  the  Illinois  River,  said  to  be  the  greatest 
Indian  town  ever  built  by  northern  natives,  there  to  see 
the  first  white  men,  and  there  to  listen  to  Marquette 
who,  accompanied  by  Joliet,  addressed  the  assembled 
multitude.  We  hear  of  the  Illinois  again  in  a  life  and  death 
struggle  with  the  Iroquois  seven  years  later,  in  the  same 

(211 


locality,  in  the  year  1 680,  when  Tonty  there  saved  the  day 
for  the  remnant  of  the  tribes  which  the  Iroquois  had  not 
destroyed.  For  the  next  twenty  years  we  know  that  they 
were  true  to  the  French  and  to  Tonty  as  his  faithful  allies 
at  Fort  Saint  Louis.  We  hear  of  them  for  half  a  century 
and  more  at  the  Catholic  Missions  of  Kaskaskia  and 
Cahokia,  and  at  last  in  the  year  1 770  in  the  greatest  Indian 
tragedy  of  American  history  when  by  siege  and  starvation, 
surrounded  by  their  enemies  the  Ottawas  and  Potta- 
watomies,  the  remnant  of  this  once  [proud  and  powerful 
nation,  not  only  paid  the  last  penalty  that  human  flesh 
can  pay,  but  gave  to  the  site  of  old  Fort  Saint  Louis  the 
historic  name  it  has  borne  for  over  a  century,  designating 
and  perpetuating  the  cause  of  their  extermination  in  the 
name,  "Starved  Rock."  And  there,  now,  on  the  banks  of 
the  River  Illinois,  in  the  new  State  Park,  stands  that 
Great  Rock,  100  feet  high,  which  every  school  boy  for  the 
past  fifty  years  has  seen  in  his  geography,  an  appropriate 
and  lasting  monument,  first,  to  the  French  occupation  of 
Illinois,  the  North  Shore  and  the  Mississippi  Valley,  then 
to  two  masters  of  the  wilderness,  to  Tonty  and  to  La  Salle 
and  last  of  all  to  the  extinct  Tribes  of  the  Illinois. 

In  considering  the  people  of  all  these  tribes,  it  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  for  two  hundred  years  preceding 
the  advent  of  the  white  man  to  this  locality  and  for  how 
much  longer  we  do  not  know,  more  than  half  of  the  North 
American  Continent  extending  as  far  south  as  the  Ohio 
River  and  as  far  north  as  Hudson  Bay  and  east  to  west 
almost  from  ocean  to  ocean,  was  the  country  of  the  tribes 
speaking  the  Algonquian  language  in  its  various  dialects. 

Like  a  great  Island  in  the  midst  of  the  Algonquins  lay 
the  country  of  the  Iroquois  or  Five  Nations  of  New  York, 
of  a  far  different  race  and  language,  the  Indians  of  "The 
Long  House."  The  Five  Nations  were  a  powerful  confed- 
eracy. For  centuries  of  time,  with  slight  cessation,  they 
lived  in  a  state  of  open  war  and  defiance  of  the  French  and 
all  the  other  Indian  tribes.  With  but  2500  warriors,  but 

[22] 


equipped  with  better  weapons  and  having  superior  ex- 
perience in  warfare,  they  practically  destroyed  more  than 
thirty  nations,  and  in  eighty  years  are  said  to  have  killed 
600,000  people.  The  Algonquins,  times  without  number, 
fled  at  the  first  peal  of  the  Iroquois'  war  cry  and  all  Canada 
shook  with  the  fury  of  their  onset. 

Their  thirst  for  conquest  led  them  westward  from  their 
far  away  eastern  homes;  their  war  parties  penetrated  the 
intervening  wilderness  of  forest  and  plain,  navigated  the 
western  rivers  and  great  lakes  and  destroyed  or  drove 
their  enemies  in  terror  before  them.  Distance,  hardships, 
winter,  and  time  expended  in  travel  presented  no  obstacles 
to  them.  They  were  away  from  home,  at  times,  more 
than  a  year  on  the  war  path  and  extended  their  depredations 
not  only  into  Canada  and  the  entire  region  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  but  as  far  west  as  the  Black  Hills. 

They  must  be  mentioned  in  our  North  Shore  history 
for  they  scattered  and  all  but  destroyed  the  Illinois  tribes, 
and  time  and  again  pursued  and  chased  their  enemies, 
including  the  Hurons  or  Wyandots  in  the  year  1660,  along 
the  North  Shore  and  at  other  times  across  the  prairies 
of  the  Illinois  Country. 

Here  also  have  come  and  gone  many  other  known 
tribes.  Among  them  in  their  long  wanderings  from  home, 
the  great  and  savage  Sioux  from  his  far  away  Western 
prairies,  the  marauding  Sacs  and  Foxes,  the  Winnebagoes, 
former  brothers  of  the  Sioux.  The  warlike  Kickapoos, 
perhaps  their  supposed  allies,  the  Mascoutens,  the  ancient 
Hurons  or  Wyandots  just  mentioned  later  to  suffer  all 
but  annihilation  at  the  hands  of  the  blood-thirsty  Iroquois, 
the  short,  thick-set  Ottawas,  and  the  Shawnees  from  their 
former  sunny  Southland. 

Here  also  came,  especially  to  treaty-making-Councils, 
there  to  share  in  the  goods  and  whiskey  furnished  by  the 
glib-tongued  Government  Agents  in  exchange  for  wide 
domains  of  land,  the  Ojibways  or  Chippewas  from  Michigan 
and  Lake  Superior,  where  they  have  lived  longer  than  all 

(23) 


the  traditions  of  all  their  people  and  from  remote  pre- 
historic times. 

Intimately  connected  with  the  history  of  the  North 
Shore  are  the  Miamis,  among  whom  and  at  their  Village 
was  founded  the  Guardian  Angel  Mission.  There  is 
abundant  evidence  to  indicate  that  in  all  probability  this 
tribe  occupied  much  of  the  North  Shore  for  an  extended 
period  of  time.  Prior  to  the  exploration  period  they  were 
probably  one  of  the  Illinois  tribes.  They  migrated  from 
Illinois,  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  then  again  returned 
to  occupy  much  of  Northern  Illinois,  and  later  to  become 
a  power  in  the  States  of  Ohio  and  Indiana. 

They  thought  more  of  war  and  hunting  the  buffalo  than 
they  did  of  the  Catholic  creed  and  religion,  as  appears 
quite  clearly  from  the  Jesuit  Relations,  showing  that  even 
the  kind  and  zealous  Fathers  Pinet  and  Binneteau  gave 
up  this  North  Shore  Mission  and  went  to  religious  pastures 
new  among  other  tribes  to  the  South  and  West,  and  as 
appears  also  by  what  Hiram  W.  Beckwith  and  William 
Henry  Harrison  say  of  the  Miamis  in  the  following  words: 

"With  the  implements  of  civilized  warfare  in  their 
hands,  they  maintained  their  tribal  integrity  and  inde- 
pendence and  they  traded  with  and  fought  against  the 
French,  British  and  Americans  by  turns,  as  their  interests 
or  passions  inclined:  and  made  peace  or  declared  war 
against  other  nations  of  their  own  race  as  policy  or  caprice 
moved  them.  More  than  once  they  compelled  the  arrogant 
Iroquois  to  beg  from  the  governors  of  the  American  colonies 
that  protection  which  they  themselves  had  failed  to  secure 
by  their  own  prowess.  Bold,  independent,  flushed  with 
success,  the  Miamis  afforded  a  poor  field  for  missionary 
work.  *  *  *  Saving  the  ten  years  preceding  the  Treaty 
of  Greenville  in  1 795,  the  Miamis  alone  could  have  brought 
more  than  three  thousand  warriors  in  the  field,  and  they 
composed  a  body  of  the  finest  light  troops  in  the  world." 

And  now  in  concluding  these  brief  and  incomplete 
references  to  the  Indian  Tribes  of  the  North  Shore,  men- 

(241 


tion  at  least  must  be  made  of  the  Pottawatomies,  a  people, 
as  Schoolcraft  describes  them,  "tall  of  stature,  fierce  and 
haughty" — the  prairie  bands,  "the  canoe  men,"  who  for 
the  greater  part  of  two  hundred  years  were  the  landed 
proprietors  of  this  North  Shore,  from  whom  the  white 
man  at  last  took  his  title. 

The  writers  tell  us  that  they  came  here  from  Green  Bay 
at  an  uncertain  date,  but  prior  to  the  siege  of  Starved  Rock 
in  1770,  when  they  finally  destroyed  the  Illinois  and  took 
possession  of  their  country,  from  that  time  until  the  final 
Treaty  of  Chicago  in  1833,  they  were  of  commanding 
importance  here  and  allied  with  the  Pottawatomies  of 
the  Woods  of  Michigan,  and  with  the  Ottawas  and  the 
Ojibways  of  the  North.  They  were  not  only  actively  con- 
cerned in  all  the  warlike  transactions  of  their  time,  but 
among  their  numbers  were  some  of  the  most  noted  orators 
of  history.  They  participated  in  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe 
and  stamped  their  names  forever  upon  the  History  of 
Chicago  by  the  Fort  Dearborn  Massacre. 

The  final  picture  of  the  Pottawatomies  as  a  tribe  in 
this  locality,  will  be  found  in  that  graphic  description  by 
the  learned  English  Traveler,  Charles  Latrobe,  friend  and 
traveling  companion  of  Washington  Irving.  Latrobe  was 
an  interesting  spectator  of  much,  if  not  all,  that  occurred  at 
the  final  treaty  with  the  Indians  at  Chicago  concluded  Sep- 
tember 26th,  1833;  says  Latrobe:  *  *  *  "When  within 
five  miles  of  Chicago  we  came  to  the  first  Indian  encampment, 
five  thousand  Indians  were  said  to  be  collected  around  this 
little  upstart  village."  *  *  *  "The  Pottawatomies  were 
encamped  on  all  sides — on  the  wide  level  prairie  beyond  the 
scattered  village,  beneath  the  shelter  of  the  low  woods  on  the 
side  of  the  small  river,  or  to  the  leeward  of  the  sand  hills  near 
the  beach  of  the  lake."  *  *  *  "I  loved  to  stroll  out 
toward  sunset  across  the  river,  and  gaze  upon  the  level 
horizon,  stretching  to  the  northwest  over  the  surface  of 
the  prairie,  dotted  with  innumerable  objects  far  and  near. 
Not  far  from  the  river  lay  many  groups  of  tents.  Their 

1251 


vicinity  was  always  enlivened  by  various  painted  Indian 
figures,  dressed  in  the  most  gaudy  attire."  *  *  * 
"Far  and  wide  the  grassy  prairie  teemed  with  figures; 
warriors,  mounted  or  on  foot,  squaws  and  horses.  Here  a 
race  between  three  or  four  Indian  ponies;  each  carrying 
a  double  rider,  whooping  and  yelling  like  fiends.  There  a 
solitary  horseman  with  a  long  spear,  turbaned  like  an 
Arab,  scouring  along  at  full  speed — groups  of  hobbled 
horses;  Indian  dogs  and  children,  or  a  grave  conclave 
of  gray  chiefs  sea  ted  on  the  grass  in  consultation."  *  *  * 
"After  many  days  of  delay,  preparation  and  negotiation, 
the  council  fire  was  at  last  lighted  under  a  spacious  open 
shed  on  the  green  meadow,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river  from  that  on  which  the  fort  stood."  *  *  *  "The 
relative  positions  of  the  commissioners  and  the  whites 
before  the  council  fire,  and  that  of  the  red  children  of  the 
forest  and  prairie,  were  to  me  strikingly  impressive.  The 
glorious  light  of  the  setting  sun  streaming  in  under  the 
low  roof  of  the  council  house,  fell  full  on  the  countenances 
of  the  former  as  they  faced  the  west — while  the  pale  light 
of  the  east  hardly  lighted  up  the  dark  and  painted  linea- 
ments of  the  poor  Indians,  whose  souls  evidently  clave 
to  their  birth-right  in  that  quarter." 

Turning  from  this  fragmentary  reference  to  Latrobe's 
account,  we  can  see  the  Pottawatomies  once  again  in  the 
last  great  mimic  war  dance  at  this  same  little  village,  in  the 
presence  of  its  early  settlers  two  years  later  and  in  1835, 
preceding  their  removal  to  the  West. 

These  last  transactions  are  all  within  the  memory  of 
many  North  Shore  citizens  who  have  lived  in  this  genera- 
tion. Less  than  a  century  has  rolled  by  since  these  savage 
children  of  the  wilds  took  their  farewell  look  at  old  Lake 
Michigan  and  crossed  for  the  last  time,  in  their  westward 
journey,  the  plains  and  woods  and  streams  of  the  land 
of  the  Illinois.  Their  fathers  entered  here  with  strong  and 
bloody  hands,  peaceably,  yet  by  still  stronger  hands,  have 
they  gone  the  way  of  all  their  race.  They  have  caused 

126J 


the  white  man  to  hear  and  to  speak  of  the  last  of  the 
Illinois,  and  soon,  too  soon,  will  the  white  man  also  hear 
of  the  last  of  the  Pottawatomies. 


These  people  and  these  historic  incidents  to  which  has 
been  given  such  hasty  and  imperfect  reference,  represent 
much  of  the  history  of  our  State  and  of  the  North  Shore, 
at  a  time  that  will  command  the  attention  of  all  those 
who  admire  primeval  scenes,  or  appreciate  the  historic 
charm  of  Indian  Days  and  the  romance  of  the  Period  of 
the  Explorers — of  the  days  of  the  North  Shore  as  it  used 
to  be.  The  Wigwams  of  the  Pottawatomies  and  the 
Miamis  are  seen  no  more  by  the  Skokie,  nor  their  birch-bark 
canoes  on  the  water;  the  explorer,  and  the  wearer  of  the 
black  robe,  journey  no  more  to  unknown  lands,  nor  in 
fruitless  search  for  the  short  passage  to  the  Orient;  the  fur 
trader  lives  only  in  memory  or  in  the  far  away  Northland; 
the  last  note  of  the  boat  song  of  the  French  voyageur  has 
long  since  died  away  in  the  distance;  the  ceaseless  change 
of  the  nineteenth  and  the  twentieth  centuries  has  brought 
a  swiftly  moving  panorama  of  new  men  and  new  events — 
creating  a  new  civilization,  but  those  of  two  centuries 
and  more  ago  and  of  the  later  period  of  the  Pioneers  will 
live  in  interesting  contemplation  through  the  years  that  we 
shall  enjoy  that  richest  of  all  empires,  which  these  men 
first  saw  in  its  primeval  splendor. 


271 


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1903.) 
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in  Fergus  Papers  (1884). 
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Dean  Caton.     (Fergus  Papers,    1876.) 
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